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ADDRESS 




THE ENOSINIAN SOCIETY 



COLUMBIAN COLLEGE 



OCCASION OF THE CELEBRATION OF THEIR TWENTY-EIGHTH 
ANNIVERSARY. 




BY WM. B. WEBB, Esq 



i 



ADDRESS 



THE ENOSINIAN SOCIETY 



COLUMBIAN COLLEGE, 



OCCASION OF THE CELEBRATION OF THEIR TWENTY-EIGHTH 
ANNIVERSARY, 




7^ 

/ BY WM. B, WEBB, Esq» 



/0 



(■^ U.S. A, 



WASHINGTON : 

PRINTED BY J. AND G. S, GIDEOJ^« 

1848. 






Enosinian Hall, July 12, 1847. 
Sir: At a meeting of the Enosinian Society, held this morning, it was unanimously re- 
solved, that the thanks of the society be tendered you for the able and satisfactory address 
delivered last evening, and that a committee be appointed to request a copy for publication. 
Permit us to add our personal solicitations to the wishes of the body of which we are 
the representatives. 

We remain, sir, your very obedient servants, 

J. R. HOLLIDAY, 
J. H. WILSON, 
THOS. JONES, 

Committee, 
Wm. B. Webb, Esq., 

Washington City, D. C. 



Washington, July 19, 1848. 
Gentlemen : Your very flattering letter of the 12th instant, tendering me the thanks of 

the Society, and requesting a copy of my address for publication, was duly received. 

For this testimonial of kind feeling towards me, I beg, gentlemen, that you, and througb 
you the Society, will accept my sincere acknowledgments. Enclosed I send you a copy 
of the address, which is at your disposal. 

With many wishes for the future welfare of each and every member of the Society and 
College, allow me to remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

W. B. WEBB. 
To Messrs. J. R. Holliday, 
J. H. Wilson, 
Thos. Jones, 

Committee, 



ADDRESS. 



Gentlemen of the Enosinian Society : 

I should feel that 1 had omitted the pleasantest part of my duty upon 
this occasion, were I not to thank you for the great honor you have con- 
ferred upon me, by selecting me to fill the place of your orator on this an- 
niversary. This is an honor the more deeply felt, the more gratefully 
acknowledged, as coming from that Association with which some of the 
fondest reminiscences of my life are indissolubly connected ; with whose 
members I am proud to rank myself as a brother, as a child of the same 
cherished Alma Mater. A few years only have elapsed, gentlemen, since 
it was my privilege to take an active part in the proceedings of the Society 
whose anniversary we now celebrate. I look back upon that period as 
the brightest and happiest of my life. From my exulting freshmanship, 
to the moment when I found myself the possessor of a degree, my 
college life will ever be remembered as a green spot in my existence. 
Fain would I pause and linger amid the fascinating recollections which 
thoughts of those by-gone days bring around me. Fain would I summon, 
one by one, the spirits of the companions of that youthful period — fight 
with them once more the battle of debate, and commune with them again 
of mutual studies. Alas ! some of them have already been gathered to 
that spirit land whence no earthly voice can summon them ; others are 
seeking reputation and honor in the various paths of life ; and but a small 
band remains near the well remembered spot — the spot where we first 
learnt the true use of knowledge, where our minds were enlarged and in- 
vigorated by deep draughts from the fount of learning, and where we met 
men as instructors and companions, for whom we have ever cherished the 
highest feelings of respect and friendship. But I pause, lest I trespass on 
too prolific a theme ; I pause, once more, from the very depths of my heart, 
to thank you. 

In the vast range of subjects which present themselves for our consi-^ 
deration, on an occasion like the present, none, perhaps, offer so many in- 
ducements for selection as those which have relation to politics. The 
political greatness, both past and present, and the political destiny of his 
country, are topics of peculiar interest to the American. But, gentlemen, 
I deem it a subject of mutual congratulation, that, at this time, when the 
political world is being convulsed from one end to the other, the monarch- 



6 

ies of Europe seemingly tottering on their foundations, and the two great 
parties in our own country engaged in a desperate struggle for the victory 
of their respective principles, we can assemble peacefully and quietly to 
celebrate a literary anniversary. Allow me, therefore, gentlemen, to in- 
vite your attention to a consideration of what, in the absence of a better 
name, I shall term the Literary Wants of America. 

The position which a nation takes among the other nations of the world, 
depends upon nothing so especially as the character of the great men it 
produces. Its history is but the record of their deeds, the story of their 
achievements. The manners of a people require but a few words of men- 
tion ; while whole volumes are insufficient for a detail of the expeditions of 
Cyrus, or Hannibal, or Napoleon. In relating these latter, the historian 
has faithfully performed the best part of his duty. History would become 
too voluminous did it busy itself with recording any but the most promi- 
nent events that mark the progress of a nation. The ingenuity of the 
reader must be exercised, or historical writings would fail to entertain as 
well as instruct, and become nothing more than dull tables of chronology. 
Fashioned by the people, the great men of an age or nation become its 
representatives. Nothing marks more surely the changes which have 
agitated a nation, than the differences of character that are apparent 
among, its great men. Rome has given birth to a Tarquin and a Brutus, 
to a Cincinnatus and a Sylla, a Pompey and a Csesar, a Rienzi and a 
Stephen Colonna. 

But in nothing is this more singularly observable, than in the progress 
which nations make in civilization and refinement. Individual effort is 
the soul, the foundation of every movement of reform. It marks every 
step of a nation's progress towards perfection. Such are the influences of 
great minds upon the nation, and in view of them society has a duty to 
perform : that duty is to see that those men are appreciated whose charac- 
ters will tend to elevate the nation in the eyes of present and future gene- 
rations. By the encouragement of cultivation and refinement, by confer- 
ring an importance upon those pursuits and occupations which tend to 
elevate and dignify the people, must society do this. Man can be eleva- 
ted and digtiified in no surer way, than through the cultivation and en- 
largement of his mind. By efforts to engender a taste for the fine arts, by 
the diffusion of knowledge, by the cultivation of literature, and the en- 
couragement of literary pursuits, should this be done. Science and scien- 
tific men, literature and literary men, deserve the most admiring consid- 
eration, the highest honors at the hands of nations. 

By literature, as taken in connection with the idea of a nation, something 
more is meant than the narrow definition which the lexicographer attaches 



to the term. Tt is the expression of a nation's mind; the written language 
<of a nation's thought. It is the medium through which nation holds con- 
verse with nation, age with age. Speaking of the subject, an able writer 
^says: '^A country which has no national literature, or a literature too in- 
significant to force itself abroad, must always be to its neighbors, at least 
sn every important spiritual respect, an unknown and misestimated country. 
Its towns may figure on our maps; its revenues, population, manufactures, 
political connections, maybe recorded in statistical books, but the character 
of the people has no symbol and no voice; we cannot know them by speech 
and discourse, but only by mere sight and outward observation of their 
manners and procedure." In its literature, a nation lives and speaks long 
after its greatness and glory have departed. The strains of the blind bard 
Df Greece have lost nothing of their sweetness by the lapse of ages ; and 
the thunders of that eloquence, 

"YsThich shook 
The Arsenal, and fulmined over Greece 
From Macedon to Artaxerxes throne," 

have never ceased to thrill the heart of every reader. The fame of the 
warrior may decay and be forgotten; the glories gained upon the tented 
field may pale and grow dim, as time waxes older; but posterity will ever 
accord respect and honor to the productions of the poet and the philosopher, 
the historian and the orator. Upon Alexander and Csesar, Napoleon and 
Frederick, we gaze with awe-struck admiration; but with Homer and 
Virgil, Milton and Shakspeare, we hold familiar intercourse, we take 
'^sweet counsel," and live over the scenes hallowed by their writings. 

The progress of a nation in refinement can in nothing be so distinctly 
traced as in the history of its literature. Indeed, the history of every 
people will fully demonstrate that their progress in refinement has kept 
pace with their zeal in the cultivation of letters. Progress in literature, in 
that which elevates the mind, dignifies the character, and purifies the taste 
of its people, is the noblest progress that a nation can make. In no cause 
can it better expend its energies, talents, and zeal. America has this task 
to perform before she can be said to have a national literature. Authors 
she has already produced — men of talent and ability — -men of whose pro- 
ductions she has reason to be proud. But has she given birth to any whose 
writings can be ranked with those of the other civilized nations of the 
globe? Has she produced any author whose name will be handed, down to 
posterity by the side of those of Milton and Shakspeare, Voltaire and 
Racine, Goethe and Schiller? Where are her great poems? Where her 
learned dissertations? True, our country is annually filled with books, 
the productions, too, of American talent; but how many of them are destined 



V 



to outlive the generation which has given them birth? How many will be- 
come the inheritance of future ages? 

Let me invite your attention, gentlemen, for a few minutes, while I 
briefly and hurriedly advert to some of the causes which have prevented 
the progress of that cultivation of which I have spoken, to the advantages 
which America possesses, and the means she must use towards the estab- 
lishment of a national literature. 

The American people are singularly utilitarian in their views and actions. 
Present good is the chief end towards the attainment of which the energies 
of the nation are directed. Nothing strikes a calm observer of society so 
forcibly as the singular importance which is attached by men of the present 
day to the accumulation of wealth, and the respect which is paid to its 
possessor. The capitalist is the aristocrat of this day; money the talis- 
manic charm which surrounds its possessor with ready flatterers, and too 
frequently obtains for him that respect and deference which is denied to 
real talent and worth, if clothed in the garb of poverty. Is it to be won- 
dered at, then, that money-getting should be an object for the exercise of 
ingenuity and energy; that men should tax their brains to invent plans 
and build machines for the more speedy attainment of this ^^elixir vitae?" 

The present age may, without extravagance of expression, be called the 
age of machinery, and to no country can this term be more aptly applied 
than to America. All the ingenuity, all the inventive energy, all the ori- 
ginality of the people, are directed into one channel. In every branch 
of the mechanical arts, America is surpassed by no nation on the globe. 
GreatTiave been her achievements, and wonderful is heryouthful skill in 
the application of machinery to the production of whatever ministers to 
man's daily necessities. Many of the laws that govern steam, air, and 
electricity, have been discovered by her scientific men, and boldly and 
happily have they applied them. Articles which were, a few years since, 
the elaborate production of days of toil, are now produced in immense 
numbers by the single revolution of a crank. This utilitarian spirit of the 
age, while it gives the nation a name and reputation for skill in the appli- 
cation of machinery among the nations of the world, must necessarily do 
it at the sacrifice of all rapid advance in refinement and cultivation. For 
it absorbs men in pursuits which have their ultimate aim in the attainment 
of present ease and comfort, and occupies his best energies, his inventive 
faculties, his powers of origination, with things which are only temporary 
in their benefit. This is not the spirit for a nation to encourage chiefly 
among its people. Man is a being capable of the highest and holiest pur- 
poses, the loftiest and sublimest thoughts. This higher and nobler part of 



^is nature must be exercised; and that nation fails in its duty which leaves 
liim with no encouragement to such exercise. 

Side by side with the American's utilitarianism, comes his devotedness 
to politics and the concerns of party. One of the proudest privileges of 
the American is unlimited freedom of speech, unrestrained power to dis- 
cuss the actions of his Government and rulers. No edicts of prince or 
monarch, no acts of Parliament or Assembly, render it criminal or treason- 
able for the American to give free expression to his thoughts, in conversa- 
tion or on paper. The legislator and the executor of the laws are both elected 
from the people ; and th-eir every act passes under the strictest scrutiny 
and most critical examination. This state of things, while it has added to 
the security of the laws and institutions of the land, has made every man 
in the community a politician. Responsibility always engenders dignity 
in him upon whom it is reposed; and, by making our citizens voters, our 
laws have placed them under a responsibility of the most important cha- 
racter. This peculiar feature in our national system renders it incumbent 
upon every man to acquaint himself, to some extent at least, with all the 
various interests and questions which must agitate the nation. It is not 
with the system that fault is to be found at this time ; not with the cool 
and deliberate examination of political questions for conviction's sake ; not 
with that spirit of patriotism which induces the American conscientiously 
to prepare himself for a judgment upon the questions that concern his 
vital interests. These are all highly commendable ; nay, they deserve no 
commendation, since they are but the performance of a duty, the highest 
duty on his part towards his country. But it is this love of party, this 
devotion of every interest to faction, which so greatly distinguishes the 
American, and which is so decidedly to be condemned. Party and party 
interests are fearfully important in this country. Nothing excites more 
violently the passions, the prejudices, the jealousies of men, than political 
contention. In every village and in every city, at the hustings, in the 
forum, and in the halls of legislation, is this excitement carried to an 
alarming extent. By the many, time is rarely given to thought and rea- 
son. Party organization takes the place of devotion to national interests. 
Men are enlisted under the command of regular leaders, and drilled into 
the mechanical performance of what should be their happiest duty ; and 
the sacred privilege of the ballot-box too often becomes the subject of bar- 
gain and sale. Is it to be expected that a people, among whom factions 
constantly maintain a contest, should devote much time to the advance- 
ment of refinement and the cultivation of letters, or give much attention 
to the establishment of a national literature ? Amidst the jar of interests 
so discordant, opinions so directly opposite, it is scarcely probable that the 
2 



10 

nation will give calm attention to such subjects as greatness of thought, 
elegance of style, and purity of taste. 

These are the greatest obstacles in the way of America's progress in 
cultivation and elegance. There is another, but it is more venial and 
easily corrected. The Americans are a vain people, and great cause have 
they for the weakness. Right have they to be proud, but they have no 
right to let their pride make them forgetful of the greatness of other na- 
tions. Right have they to boast of their heroes and their victories; their 
institutions and their laws; of their statesmen and their philosophers; of 
their fearless boldness in the application of scientific principles, and their 
rapid progress in the useful arts; but they have no right to be unmindful 
of their intimate connection with, and constant dependence upon, other 
nations. His pride is natural, when the American looks back upon the 
past history of his country. But a short time since and the builder's ham- 
mer at Jamestown, or the chaunted hymn of the Pilgrim, the crack of the 
hunter's rifle, or the cry of the hungry panther, were the only sounds that 
disturbed the sabbath-like stillness of spots where now stand mighty cities, 
shining in the sunbeams, with dazzling spire and dome. His pride is na- 
tural, when the American gazes along the procession of the last ninety 
years; when he looks on Bunker Hill and Trenton, on Yorktown and 
Champlain, on Buena Vista and Cerro Gordo. But, alas ! what a check 
that pride must receive, when he reflects how humble a position in the 
scale of literary excellence his country occupies. What chagrin and disap- 
pointment must he feel w^ho would fain see his country assume a lofty- 
position among the elegant nations of the Globe, when he finds her destitute 
of the first grand requisite of a purer eminence. How poor a lover of his 
country must he be, who, proud to dwell upon her military and civic 
achievements, would not have her known to coming generations as the 
noble seat of learning and refinement. 

It is urged by those who would apologize for the feeble condition of liter- 
ature in America, that she is yet young, and needs age and maturity to 
prepare her for a station by the side of the older nations of the earth. This 
is but a poor apology for inaction. The nation's youth should offer one of 
the strongest inducements to early and constant action. Youth is the sea- 
son for preparation, the period when the mind is fresh and vigorous. Ear- 
ly training makes the man active and strong; early cultivation makes him 
refined and elevated in his tastes. This, then, is one of the greatest ad- 
vantages that America has, and the one best calculated to insure the es- 
tablishment of a national literature. She is young and vigorous, full of 
energy and active impulses. No long practised and set habits of thought 
and sentiment, no blind veneration for any particular standard of taste or 



11 

purity, no obstinate devotion to ancient ideas of beauty, hamper America 
with their shackles. This is the greatest privilege of the writer, that he 
has to write for a people who possess the fresh and vigorous minds of youth; 
that he has a taste to form, a standard to raise, an idea of beauty to build 
up. A great and glorious work have the authors of our country, the work 
of giving tongue and utterance to the thought of a nation; of 

"Giving each rock a storied tale, 
Pouring a lay through every vale; 
Knitting, as with a nnortal band, 
Their story to their native land ; 
Combining, thus, the interest high. 
Which genius lends to beauty's eye!" 

But there is another advantage which America has, peculiarly her own. 
An American literature must be a literature of the people. In other nations, 
where refinement is confined almost entirely to the upper classes of soci- 
ety, the patronage of such classes is the first thing to be gained by the 
author. To them he dedicates his mental productions, and fiom them he 
hopes to obtain that praise which should come from his country. In 
America nothing of this kind exists; the people are as much their own 
mental as their own political rulers. Here the lowest as well as the high- 
est are to be addressed, if the author would accomplish anything by his 
productions. To the people and their good must he dedicate his labors. 
What could excite the writer, were he a true patriot, to more serious de- 
votedness to the cause of elevating and refining his countrymen, to the 
advocacy of their highest and best interests, and the expression of the no- 
blest and purest sentiments, than the thought that his countrymen are to 
be the judges of his productions. 

I come now to consider the means to be used by America in her efforts 
to build for herself a national literature. I find these to consist in the 
wisest and best education of her people. Popular education — the educa- 
tion of the masses — is the constant theme of conversation and thought with 
the American people. State legislation has busied itself , with many plans 
for the better conduct and organization of primary and high schools, and 
many great and important benefits have flowed from its efforts. The com- 
mon school system of portions of America is, perhaps, more perfect than 
that of any other country; and, as a natural consequence, the citizens of 
such portions are more highly educated than any other people in Christen- 
dom. It is not my purpose to enter into any discussion of the merits or 
demerits of any particular system of popular education. The object is a 
grand one, and the little that has been accomplished plainly demonstrates how 
much may be done by united and energetic effort. But it is to be feared 
that this object, as pursued among us, is far too frequently narrow and con- 



1^ 

traded, too entirely mechanical and utilitarian. The youth are instructedy^ 
faithfully and carefully instructed, in what are termed the useful branches 
of education. They are systematically drilled into the simple and prima- 
ry branches; are taught to read and write; acquire some familiarity witb 
the fundamental laws af grammar and arithmetic; and are then sent into 
the world. Better men and better citizens they undoubtedly are; better 
prepared for the counting-house and the workshop, so far as this pre- 
paration at the school is concerned. But the great object of all education 
remains unaccomplished, unless, at the same time, the mind has been en- 
larged, the thinking faculty refined and cultivated. Men must be taught 
to think, or education has failed in the best part of its duty. Men are 
made better citizens, through means of an education, only in so far as they 
are prepared by it the better to play their allotted part in life, and add 
something not merely to their private happiness, but, if possible, to the 
public greatness and glory. Such is the education we would have for our 
country. And this education must cease to be sectional, and extend itself 
throughout the length and breadth of the land, equally to all. The educa- 
tion of its people is the solemn duty of a nation, and must be performed. 
For its omission there can be no excuse; the darkness of ignorance and the 
certainty of national ruin are the. alternatives. Let the education of a 
community be such that its members shall be elevated and refined — an 
education of the thought and sentiment; and one of the strongest materials 
that can be used in the great work of building up a national literature is 
already obtained. 

Thus, gentlemen, have I briefly and hurriedly adverted to the literary 
wants of America, to the reasons of her slow progress, to her peculiar ad- 
vantages, and the means to be used by her in the establishment of a 
national literature. It is a theme upon which volumes might be written, 
and any attempt to consider which, within the limits I have allotted my- 
self, must fall far short of doing j ustice. 

A great work is to be performed by America. She has yet to establish 
for herself a national literature, yet to win for herself a place among the 
refined and cultivated nations of the Globe. Her first step is the creation of 
a lofty standard of excellence both of thought and expression. This gained, 
the rest is more easily accomplished. It is the work of criticism to point out 
this standard. Let criticism do its duty faithfully and earnestly. Let it busy 
itself with the essence, the soul, and not the garment of its subject. Mind- 
ful of the importance of its decisions, those decisions should be based up- 
on the sure foundations of reason and truth. '^Criticism,'' says an elo- 
quent writer, "stands like an interpreter between the inspired and the un- 
inspired; between the prophet and those who hear the melody of his words, 



13 

and catch some glimpses of their material meaning, but understand not 
their deeper import. She pretends to open for us this deeper import, to 
clear our sense, that we may discern the pure brightness of this eternal 
beauty, and recognise the heavenly, under all forms where it looks forth> 
and reject of the earth, earthy, all forms, be their natural splendor what 
it may, where no gleamings of that other shines through." Let her see 
to it, that this great duty is performed; that the beautiful is exhibited ta 
admiration, and the base to deprecation, wherever discernible. This stand- 
ard obtained, let society work with it ever in view. The masses must be 
educated with a view to the study and appreciation of it. The language, 
common to England and America, must be taught in our schools,- not as if 
it were a mere mechanical contrivance, invented for the convenience of 
men in their daily transactions of business or pleasure — a matter of mere 
grammatical construction — ^but as the great medium of thought, a know- 
ledge of which will ensure the best means of obtaining an insight into the 
thoughts of great and good men, of knowing and understanding the virtue 
and excellence of former times, and establishing that of the present. 

The author, as well as the community, has a part to perform in this great 
work. He is the thinker for society. Future ages will read his writings^ 
and judge the age in which he writes by them. Let him so write, that 
his productions may be worthy the approval of the good ; that their in- 
fluence shall be beneficial to his country. Above all, let him free himself 
from the burden of gross imitation which has so disfigured our literary pro- 
ductions in these latter times. It would seem that oddity and mysticism 
were the literary orders of the day. A kind of jargon is affected by those 
who would be popular, as if to be incomprehensible were the surest road 
to the respect of the community. This kind of writing must and will be 
condemned by a sensible and sense-loving people. The beautiful sim- 
plicity of pure English must be preserved, unadulterated by any mixture of 
odd and incomprehensible jargons, undisfigured by any attempts to graft 
upon it the mysticism of the transcendentalist. 

In the brief period of her existence as a nation, America has accom- 
plished wonders ; and were some terrible convulsion now to tear her from- 
her proud position among nations, were the sun of her greatness now to" 
go down, it would leave behind it, upon the clouds of time^ an imperishable 
halo. Her history would be read by coming generations with wonder and 
admiration. She would be remembered as the land of free and noble in- 
stitutions, as the land of Washington and Hancock, of Jefferson and Ad- 
ams, of Fulton and Morse. Her great men, statesmen, generals, and in- 
ventors, have built up for her a name destined to stand the test of ages. 
But there are other men whose efforts have added a new lustre to her 



14 

greatness. The works of Franklin, of Channing, of Irving, of Bryant and 
Longfellow, of Bancroft and Prescott, will call forth the admiration of all 
coming generations. The ready adoption b}^ the nation of the grand sys- 
tem of international exchanges, and the energetic earnestness manifested 
in the task of fulfilling the bequest of the generous Smithson, are indica- 
tions of the character of the people, which no time can obliterate. These 
show that America has made a beginning in the cause of literature. Let 
this beginning be followed out. Let the citizens of America learn how to 
appreciate these literary men as they ought ; let them see to it that the 
historian of our times does not have to record the utter want of sympathy, 
on the part of society, with their refining and elevating labors. 

Great and lofty minds must and will be the productions of the free in- 
stitutions of America; men of bold and fearless thought ! Such men are 
what we need. Let no blind admiration for old and long established 
models cause these men to be unappreciated. Genius is a tender plant, 
and must be carefully and tenderly nurtured. The grandeur of Milton, 
the universal excellence of Shakspeare, the purity of Addison, are not to 
be equalled by a nation but a little more than half a century old. But 
should this deter the youthful nation from action ? Shall every writer 
who attempts a new train of thought be judged a presumptuous innovator, 
and himself and his works be doomed to oblivion? No; let America re- 
spect herself too much to be content with mere imitation. Let her aim to 
build up for herself a literary class of her own — her own authors, poets, 
philosophers, and historians. Let her build up for herself a literature 
which shall be the expression of high, lofty, noble, and original thought ; 
then shall she truly take her position with other cultivated nations ; and if 
in after ages the historian shall rank her side by side with Greece and 
Rome, as a republic whose glory has departed ; let him have the duty, too, 
of recording her name among those of the refined and elegant nations of 
the globe. 



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